He was the first to patent an aileron control system in 1868. Although there were previously many conflicting claims over who first invented the aileron and its function, i.e., lateral or roll control, the flight control device was invented and described by the British scientist and metaphysicist Matthew Piers Watt Boulton in his 1864 paper On Aërial Locomotion. Īilerons had more or less completely supplanted other forms of lateral control, such as wing warping, by about 1915, well after the function of the rudder and elevator flight controls had been largely standardised. Among the earliest printed aeronautical use of 'aileron' was that in the French aviation journal L'Aérophile of 1908. Prior to that, ailerons were often referred to as rudders, their older technical sibling, with no distinction between their orientations and functions, or more descriptively as horizontal rudders (in French, gouvernails horizontaux). In the context of powered airplanes it appears in print about 1908. It first appeared in print in the 7th edition of Cassell's French-English Dictionary of 1877, with its lead meaning of 'small wing'. The name 'aileron', from French, meaning 'little wing', also refers to the extremities of a bird's wings used to control their flight. A much earlier aileron concept was patented in 1868 by British scientist Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, based on his 1864 paper On Aërial Locomotion.īoulton's 1864 paper, 'On Aërial Locomotion' describing several designs including ailerons.

Government to legislate a legal resolution. Ultimately, the First World War compelled the U.S. The brothers prevailed in several court decisions which found that Curtiss's use of ailerons violated the Wright patent. The Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss fought a years-long legal battle over the Wright patent of 1906, which described a method of wing-warping to achieve lateral control.

Movement around this axis is called 'rolling' or 'banking'.Ĭonsiderable controversy exists over credit for the invention of the aileron.

Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around the aircraft's longitudinal axis), which normally results in a change in flight path due to the tilting of the lift vector. An aileron and roll trim tab of a light aircraftĪn aileron (French for 'little wing' or 'fin') is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft.

A bird without wings chords